Two properties can continue to operate as temporary housing for parolees after the Springfield City Council Tuesday overrode Mayor Mike Houston's zoning vetoes.

The council last month approved a zoning change to allow the property owner, Calvin Jones, to operate rehabilitation housing for men emerging from incarceration at properties he owns on South 11th Street and East Jackson Street.

Houston vetoed both zoning changes because he said he didn't think either was the right location for parolee housing. Jones had been using the properties for parolee housing for years, but they weren't zoned for that.

“They're only there because they didn't seek proper zoning,” Houston said at Tuesday's city council meeting.

That was the more contentious location of the two, and saw public comments Tuesday night from 15 people, including Jones, and nearby skate park owner George Sinclair, who opposes the halfway house in that location.

“This comes down to a property conflict with me and George Sinclair,” Jones told the council.

Sinclair, who owns indoor skating venue Skank Skates, located near Jones' 11th Street property, offered to trade another property he owns with Jones to put an end to their dispute. Sinclair owns a home on South Grand Avenue West in Ward 6, and offered to swap that with Jones' 11th Street property.

Sinclair said he doesn't have a personal issue with Jones or his tenants, he just objects to the location of the rehabilitation housing.

“We've created a safe haven for artists, for musicians, for people of all walks of life,” Sinclair said of the skate park.

‘Offenders do need it'

Prior to the vote, aldermen voted to suspend the rules to allow for public comment since a number of people attended the meeting to speak about the issue. The discussion lasted more than an hour and a half.

The majority of the speakers supported the rehabilitation homes, and at least four of the men who spoke either currently live at one of Jones' properties or have gone through one of his programs in the past.

McMenamin was not convinced, saying, “What's particularly disturbing here is it's an area where youth hang out.”

Before the meeting, McMenamin distributed a police call log that showed 48 calls for service to Jones' 11th Street property between November 2001 and June 16. A range of incidents were reported in that time, including a compliance check to ensure a registered sex offender was living at his reported address last month, a stabbing in 2008, patrol investigations, loud music and disturbances, among other things.

Page 2 of 2 - “This just doesn't look that alarming,” Ward 10 Ald. Tim Griffin said of the volume of calls.

If the council hadn't overrode Houston's vetoes, some sort of adjustment would have been required at the two properties or they would have been forced to close.

Robert Price, who went through one of Jones' programs in 2011, called it “very good.”

“The offenders do need it,” Price told the council.

The council override of Houston's zoning veto on the other property, at 1940 E. Jackson St., was by an 8-2 vote, with Edwards and Lesko casting the “no” votes.

Ward 3 Ald. Doris Turner read a statement citing the need for such housing in Springfield. She also read from a guest editorial Houston wrote for The State Journal-Register about ongoing issues at the Bel-Aire Motel, which responded to Ward 6 Ald. Cory Jobe calling for the building to be shut down and condemned, and in which Houston referred to “political posturing.”

“I believe this was political posturing on your part, and we'll agree to disagree,” Turner told Houston about his veto.

Alliance rejected

The council on Tuesday also shot down, in a 1-9 vote, Houston's proposal to change city code to explicitly allow the city to go through the National Joint Powers Alliance, a purchasing agent that's a division of the state of Minnesota, to procure contracts, goods and services.

The city went through the alliance to procure its controversial $3.75 million NAPA Auto Parts contract to set up and maintain the parts room at the new, consolidated vehicle maintenance garage.

Houston introduced the ordinance to eliminate future questions regarding the city going through the alliance to procure contracts.

The city has gone through the alliance in the past, which puts contracts out through its own bidding process. Hundreds of municipalities across Illinois work with the alliance.

The majority of the push-back from aldermen stemmed from their concern that going through the alliance would shut local vendors and business owners out of potential city contracts.

Ward 8 Ald. Kris Theilen was the only one who voted in favor of the mayor's ordinance.

Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman suggested an amendment that would require anything that goes through the alliance to be posted to the city's purchasing websites to give local vendors a chance to compete, and he then made a motion to send the ordinance back to committee to be amended and refined. That failed, which forced the vote on the ordinance as it was written Tuesday night.